


Elmosolyodni

by AlertsDontExist



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Brief animal death, F/F, F/M, First Kiss, First Love, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Young Love, it doesn't feel anything but the description is plain, so... not really but it's my fic and I do what I want, technically canon compliant if you squint and ignore a few things, young au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 19:22:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28961649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlertsDontExist/pseuds/AlertsDontExist
Summary: Molly is reminded of a time in her youth spent in the woods upon discovering that she is not the only person that likes being there---In which Molly meets Chiyoh and they spend a few months getting to know each other, and realize they really enjoy each other's company.
Relationships: Chiyoh/Molly Graham, Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter (mentioned), Will Graham/Molly Graham (Mentioned)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5
Collections: Hannibal Flash Fic #003





	Elmosolyodni

The woods behind her house reminded Molly of her youth. She mentioned this to Will when she noticed how outdoorsy he seemed to be. Or, seemed to want to be, really. He never pushed too far into the trees. She often caught him staring in a singular direction that, when curiosity overtook her and she followed, found it led to a wide stream a few feet deep, home to a number of fish when she waded out into the middle and stood still for a while. The cold seeped through her boots before too long though, and she couldn’t stay, so she returned to shore and home, thinking.

It was calm out there, the sound of running water and wind through trees soothing her thoughts for a time and allowing her to simply feel. The water pushing gently at the backs of her calves, the teasing warmth of the shaded sun on her upper brow, and the minuscule wind of an insect buzzing past her arm on its way elsewhere. There was a stack of tackle boxes in their garage, she’d noticed. Not a single one of them was without a thick layer of dust, shoved all the way in the back corner and half-hidden by a tarp, peeking out much like the scar on his forehead, hidden and ever-present, inescapable and impossible to conceal. Will had said one of his hobbies for many years was to fish, this must have been where he came. She listened to the water and wind, letting herself feel. She felt the fish swim by, struggling against the current, or helpfully pushed along. She felt the brief wish to lay down in the water, let it engulf her, and float away. It reminded her of other things. She felt the peace of standing among so many living things, and the fear of many more watching with unseen eyes from unseen places. 

It was a wonder Will had managed to resist coming back to this place at all, Molly was sure she would not have the restraint for such a thing. She felt closer to him, after coming here. Laying next to him in bed that night, she mentioned having found the stream. The bed was cold when he stood up after she asked if he might like to take Wally there sometime. It was a little better when he came back, but he still faced away and wasn’t interested in conversation. 

“Yeah, maybe.” was all he said.

She returned to the stream a few days later, wading out shoeless over sharp rocks that made her flinch and pick up her feet as she moved. It reminded her of the woods she used to explore as a young girl. Miles wide, and just as long. She would escape her chores and responsibilities for the day, picking through foliage and branches. Many of the trees were too high to reach, but some branches were just low enough to grab onto and pull herself up. Most were too flimsy at the top, but Molly still recalled the exhilaration of the few she managed to get very close to. Often she would bring a knife to carve into the trees where she had been so she wouldn’t get lost. Molly learned the woods nearest to the house quickly, and so didn’t need such markers when she was close to home. But staying close was unsatisfying, and she was curious about what lay deeper, so every day Molly would push further, determined to either come out the other side or find something to distract her. There were many distracting things in the woods, curious bugs or roots or plants, and she explored every one of them, memorizing until she could name them by sight alone. Careful not to eat anything, she only touched plants with the back of her hand, and brought things back to the house to ask her parents or their many guidebooks what they were. 

A nibble on the back of her heel brought Molly back to the present, with very cold feet, stiff and sore. Not dangerously cold, but enough that she hurried back to shore and dried off quickly, cupping them until feeling returned and she could put on her shoes without fear of wet socks. The fish that had touched her was long gone, startled away by the movement, and lost beneath the waves under reflected sunlight. Molly stood, looking out to the other shore for a moment, before turning back into the trees. She didn’t notice the face hidden in shadows, silently confused as it tried to place why hers was familiar. 

Molly took a different route back, running her hands lightly over tree bark as she went, and stopped when she saw a rather interesting tree in front of her. The ground around it had sunken, and something seemed to have split the base, forcing the roots to regrow and regroup much higher up. It formed a hollow in the base of the tree, suitable for Molly to crawl into and settle in with some discomfort, but also just the right size for two girls, a lifetime ago.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A young girl, about 16, flipped her blade closed and brushed away the loose bark, exposing the mark she had just carved into the tree. Miles away from Wolftrap, Virginia, this girl had no idea who Will Graham was, or Walter, or Winston. It was a beautiful day to explore the forest: yesterday’s rain had dried but the strong scents still remained. Molly climbed over another bush, noting that it seemed to be the same as the rest in this part. Most things she came across she’d already seen, but every so often there was some new plant or creature to be found. Like whatever was disturbing those leaves? 

Her eyes lit up and she moved to chase it. She caught a glimpse of… not fur exactly, but something like it, before the creature scurried further into the underbrush. Molly didn’t care much for the leaves she disturbed along the way, and was gaining on whatever it was as it darted into an opening in a tree partially hidden framed by branches and leaves. It was a rather large hole, like the tree had grown around something that wasn’t there anymore - maybe there was another animal here to be found! A fox, she had heard lived in these parts, or something big. Molly crouched and crawled inside, looking around the ground for movement. She almost passed entirely over the shoes, and would have too had they not been attached to a person.

Forgetting all about the creature, she jumped and fell against the wall of the tree, a small sound escaping her throat like an aborted yell. The girl simply stared back at her, concealed in shadow and some leaves she had covered herself with, enough to convince anyone that might come across her to pass by and continue on. Never once in all her years exploring had she come across another person, so to suddenly find one, especially hidden away like this, was startling, to say the least. 

“Uh… hi?” she asked, tentatively, still backed up as far as she could be into the tree. 

The girl hesitated, then unstuck herself from the wall, dropping down into a crouch at the center of the tree, sharp eyes darting over Molly, sizing her up, taking her in. “Hello.” The response is heavily accented, soft and low, like a sounded whisper Molly can’t tear herself away from.

“I… don’t run into people out here usually, is there another house nearby? Or are you here on purpose?” Molly responds in kind, observing the stranger’s elegant clothing, made up of dark blues, with reds highlighting here and there like how she recalled seeing drops of blood on the surface of water just below it sinks under. “I’m Molly, by the way.”

“I’m Chiyoh,” the girl replies, “I’m waiting to be found.”

Molly nodded, “Oh, like hide and seek? Like with little kids? You don’t strike me as the babysitter type, but sure.”

“No, no children. I have known very few children in my life, and they are far from here.” There was a look in her eyes, like sadness. Or maybe fear. Molly couldn’t tell.

“So you’re playing with who, then? You’re about my age - about 16 or something, aren’t you? I didn’t think we played games like that anymore.” Molly couldn’t remember the last time she played games with any of her friends, especially not hide and seek. She used to play it a lot with her parents and at birthday parties, but now the woods felt better to be in, and she was sure nobody would find her there, so there wasn’t much point to it.

“17. I am not playing with anyone young. I am waiting to be found.” Her answers were cryptic and meaningful, like she was speaking two sentences at once, but Molly could only hear one. 

“Hey, I’m turning 17 too, next week,” Molly announced, proudly. Chiyoh seemed disinterested aside from a polite nod. “Will you do something when you’re found? Hide again, or find them?” 

“Once I am found, I cannot hide. But I am hard to find, I make sure of that.” she turned her head aside, fiddling with the twigs and leaves she had scattered nearby, as though wishing to pick them up again. 

Molly nodded, but then asked, concerned, “so you’re just going to stay here until whoever it is finds you? You aren’t going anywhere? Even at night?”

“My home is elsewhere, I have all I need until I am found.”

“You could come stay with us,” she offered, Molly hated to think that this girl would be out here alone when there was just as easily a much safer place she could be. “I’m sure my parents wouldn’t mind, we have a guest bedroom you could stay in, and you wouldn’t have to worry about staying out here alone!”

Chiyoh smiled, gratefully, “no, thank you. That sounds lovely, but I cannot stay with you.” 

“Oh.” Molly was disappointed, but decided not to push. Chiyoh seemed strange enough already, she wasn’t sure how she’d respond to dedication like Molly was known for. She might move elsewhere and she’d never see her again. 

Molly wasn’t sure why that thought dejected her so.

She tried to talk with Chiyoh a bit more before it got too dark and she had to head home, but the most she got were small answers, nothing much beyond she lived with her aunt and had recently been friends with a boy she’d met while she was away somewhere. Molly had to leave shortly after, so she bade Chiyoh goodnight and move to leave the tree. 

“Will you,” she turned back to the girl when the thought occurred to her, “will you be here tomorrow?” She paused. “Do you want me to come back, tomorrow?”

Chiyoh smiled again, “yes.” 

Molly ducked her head, and left the tree, almost rushing home, like she was buzzing with some foreign excitement over something. She had just found a strange girl in the woods. Curious how quickly time seemed to pass. Molly made a note to bring some things for Chiyoh tomorrow when she went back. When she went back. She couldn’t remember a time when she had ever wanted to go back somewhere, knowing all the plants and creatures there. It was likely she didn’t know all the animals, but Molly was disinterested in them, now. The next morning couldn’t come quickly enough. 

Her parents looked surprised when Molly woke early, forgoing a comfortable breakfast in favor of some food grabbed off the counter and securing some extra in containers which were then placed in a basket alongside a few things she had grabbed earlier that morning. Molly was good at waking early, but the sun was hardly up. It was doubtless still cold and wet, and the muddy ground would be uncomfortable to walk through. She ignored the looks and instead grabbed her usual gear and headed out the door. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A frustrated groan escaped Molly, throwing up her hands as she found herself back at the tree she marked yesterday for the umpteenth time without any luck. The basket had been set down three rounds ago so she would know with certainty when she had found the tree again, and the still-unsuccessful search for something she was fairly sure had been real, were starting to grate on her nerves. Some of it looked familiar, but that faded just as quickly as she thought she recognized it. She sat on a nearby log, defeated, when she heard the same scratching sounds as earlier. The creature again? The little animal she had chased to find Chiyoh the first time? She hoped so. 

She stood and followed the sounds, eyes peeled to once again spot the small movements in the bushes. There! It skittered away, and she moved to chase it just as before. It led her someplace familiar, and ran right back into the same tree. Molly felt herself quite lucky, ducking her head inside and seeing Chiyoh watching her again, right where she said she’d be. In her hand, wriggling and struggling, was a hedgehog. 

“It’s a strange creature.” Chiyoh said, observing it, “small and round, it looks unassuming, but its quills are designed to protect it, so one must be careful.” She set it down nearby, among a patch of leaves the creature seemed rather happy to settle in. “You brought something. It wasn’t with you last time,” she continued, dropping her gaze momentarily to the basket in Molly’s hand.

“Yeah, I brought you a few things.” Molly clambered the rest of the way into the tree, setting the basket down between them and opening it so Chiyoh could examine the contents. “You don’t have to come stay with me, but I figured I could at least make sure you don’t freeze to death out here. Can’t image how cold it must get at night.”

It startled her when Chiyoh actually laughed at that. “Not any colder than what I am already used to. I have been places much colder than this.” It was a strange sound, but Molly found she rather liked it. Warm with the simple joy of finding something amusing, tinged with a frostiness of one who hasn’t had much reason to laugh lately. She wondered if she could make her laugh again. 

“You must have come from up north then, even more than we already are. It’s been a long time since I’ve been that direction. We used to take family vacations every now and then, but now my parents just work and I’ve got school all the time.” Molly deflated as she remembered. “Oh, yeah. I’ve got school. I’m off for break this week and next, but then I have to go back. I can’t come visit early in the day, and I can’t stay long in the evenings either - if you even want me to stay, that is.” She rushed the end, realizing she’d assumed. “I don’t have to come back if you don’t want me…”

“I enjoy your company, Molly.” Chiyoh responded, “You are always welcome to visit, whenever you are able. I will be here.” She had unpacked much of the basket, spreading out the blankets, food, and fresh water around them. “You are generous too, thank you for your gifts.”

“It’s nothing,” Molly couldn’t help but duck her head, breaking eye contact with Chiyoh for a moment while she pretended to see something on the ground. “I just feel like you should be comfortable out here too. Camping is great and all, but it’s better when you have a tent.” 

That laugh again, softer that time. Molly ignored the ear-to-ear grin that spreads across her face at the sound of it, and the flutter in her chest. She helped Chiyoh repack the basket, leaving out one blanket which has been set aside, presumably for tonight so she didn’t have to take everything out again just to reach the bottom. They spent the rest of that day and more together. They spoke of many things, of schooling and being raised by their caretakers, and some people they knew in each of their places. Hobbies, projects, interests. Molly spoke more, going on about a good deal of each, but Chiyoh seemed just as happy with that as when the conversation allowed her to speak as well. She said much when she had it on her mind, but was also perfectly content to follow along. They both learned about the other, and each found her fascinating. Molly had never been outside of U.S., having only traveled to some distant states here and there, and Chiyoh had never known the kind of life Molly could only describe as ‘bland’. 

The day ended once more, and Molly made to return home. “Would you like to stay?” Chiyoh asked before she was quite outside the tree, having already postponed for some time now. “You brought me all this, and I couldn’t accept it without offering you some in return.”

Molly didn’t think twice. She could always bring more food tomorrow, and it was an excuse to stay a moment longer with this curious girl in the woods. Chiyoh waved her off when she asked if she could help any, insisting that she was the guest, and Chiyoh didn’t mind making the food herself. She muttered quietly as she opened each container, seemingly looking for something before glancing up again.

“No meat?” It wasn’t spoken like an accusation, a pure question as though she’d never met anyone who hadn’t readily had meat on hand before.

Molly shrugged, “My parents are vegans, they don’t eat anything that used to be alive. Is that a problem?” 

“You don’t share their ideas?” Chiyoh regarded her curiously, expectant.

She shrunk a bit under the scrutiny, Molly couldn’t deny she was curious. “I guess I’ve never had the chance.”

“Would you like to?” There was something growing in that stare now. It had hardened, and her eyes were narrow. 

Molly wondered if perhaps she was giving the wrong answers. “I guess if it came up, sure. I wouldn’t be opposed.”

Chiyoh reached down beside her where the little hedgehog was still slumbering peacefully. It stirred as she lifted it, then settled back down as she stroked it gently for a moment. Molly was confused, then shocked as she realized what was going to happen a second before it did. Chiyoh’s hands wrapped around the small creature, swiftly breaking its spine before it had the chance to wake again. Molly gasped with a cry, eyes unable to tear away from the dangling body in Chiyoh’s hand, frozen with her mouth agape as the girl started to tend a fire. If she could see Chiyoh’s face, she would see that it was not happy, and she had closed her eyes before killing the creature and had braced herself against the wall of the tree. But Molly did not see, and was more frightened by what she saw. 

“You…” she started, dumbly. “You killed it. It was just a little thing, it wasn’t hurting anything, and you killed it!”

Chiyoh tilted her head up inquiringly. “It was old and there are many more nearby. It did not feel pain, and now you can try a meal very few people in this country even know of. I don’t remember the recipe exactly, but it should be near enough to service our needs.” When Molly wasn’t soothed by those words, she hesitated, dropping her hand as though to hide the creature. “You have not lived in such conditions.” An observation, not a question. “You live in a house with your family, your hand has never been forced… you do not know what it is to survive.” She hums and nods once, realizing. “I apologize, I did not realize you were unacquainted with death.”

“I have to go.” Molly turned away, tears brimming with thoughts she couldn’t articulate. “I’ll… I don’t know when I’ll come back.”

She sprinted home through the woods, stumbling over her own feet on a path she knew as well as her own hand, and even that was starting to look unfamiliar. She flexed her fingers as she tore through bushes, recalling the ghostly touch of Chiyoh’s fingers as they had walked and climbed together earlier that very day. The hands of a killer, one who cared nothing for small, innocent creatures? No, that couldn’t be. But it was! Molly’s head spun and she let the tears fall, slipping down her cheeks, crouching a few yards outside her house, feeling sobs wrack her body. She could still see the little hedgehog every time she closed her eyes, small and lively and calm then limp and dead. It wasn’t right, and yet, Chiyoh had spoken of it like she had no choice. Maybe their lives were too different. Maybe Molly couldn’t see herself living in a life like Chiyoh had so richly described to her. If it meant she had to kill things she had only looked upon fondly before then, was it really so great? Or… was she just unused to such things. Her parents were unusual, she knew. Not unique, there were many like them, but it raised her in a very specific way of life that many other people were likely unaccustomed to. Just as she was to theirs. 

Molly did not return for many weeks, and avoided the woods entirely that whole time, still unable to unsee what had been done. She was torn, now. She could not ignore or blindly accept what had driven her away, but she also couldn’t stay away forever. Try as she might, she was still fascinated by the strange girl in the tree hollow. Her nights grew sleepless, dreaming of a girl who laughed and smiled in a way that made her flush, then frightened her with the same smile, now brimming with sharpened teeth. Molly watched the bags beneath her eyes grow, and eventually decided enough was enough. She had known the girl for two weeks, and now she wanted to go back to her after seeing something that disturbed her enough to dead sprint in the opposite direction for nearly a month?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Hi.” she spoke softly as she stepped inside the tree. She expected a response, looking towards where the other girl had been each time she had come before, but there was nothing. The basket was still here, empty now, and the blankets remained, but Chiyoh was nowhere to be found. 

Of course, she thought, going over to where she had been last time and sitting down, just my luck. She started packing things back into the basket, intending to take them home with her, but found that once she had finished, she was loathe to leave. The longer she sat there, trying in vain to figure out why she couldn’t just stand up and go home, the more frustrated she got. 

“How easy it is for our connections to tie us in ways we would rather forget.” The familiar voice made Molly’s head rise, forgetting momentarily how streaked her face was with tears and how angry she had just been. 

“I thought you had left,” she said. 

“I worried the same.” came the reply. “Here,” she drew a cloth from her pocket and knelt in front of Molly, one hand gently reaching for her face. “No need to cry now for things we know aren’t true.” 

The gentle cradling of her jaw and dabbing at her eyes let Molly relax somewhat, sinking into the hold as she let go of the fear she’d held onto until now. This touch wasn’t one of pain. These hands weren’t made to hurt. She only did what she had to out of necessity, and she didn’t like it either. These hands were gentle and good and Molly breathed a sigh of relief as the last of her tears were washed away. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“You have to leave?” Molly looked up from her place on the ground, to where Chiyoh had not sat down this time after returning to their tree and announced the news like a funeral.

“I told you when we first met.” It was not meant to be condescending, merely a question. “Do you remember?” 

She stood, shoving her hands in her pockets and looking down at the ground so she didn’t have to meet Chiyoh’s eyes. “You were waiting for someone to find you.” It would be so much easier if she wasn’t distracted by such intelligent eyes, brimming with warmth for her, and fear from someone else Molly wished she could take away.

“And I have been found.” Chiyoh reached forward, reassuring, and drew Molly’s hands out of her pockets to be held. 

Molly still wasn’t convinced. “Is that bad?”

“No, I and quite happy having been found, even if the one who found me will likely never cross paths with me again.” There was a wistfulness, like long lost hope, even as they both knew it to be fruitless.

“I’m sorry. I’m glad they found you though.” she hated out much this felt like a goodbye “You were well hidden out here, I’m surprised even I did.” It felt like their hellos, so long ago, but somehow in reverse. As though she was the stranger in the tree, stumbled upon by this girl from another world she knew nothing about.

“Molly,” Chiyoh laughs, and it so different from the first time, now it is rich and good and full. “Sweet Molly, you give yourself too little credit. You think I waited on someone I knew to find me. I waited on a stranger and that stranger did well.”

“She did?” there came a suspicion with that question that said Molly had a feeling she knew who that ‘stranger’ was.

Chiyoh grinned with a chuckle before her face turned dark for a moment. “I came here from a place no one has been. And it is very likely no one will ever be there again. I came here because I didn’t want to be found, and I was sure I could stay hidden as long as I liked. And I did. Until a girl chased a hedgehog into my tree and found me.” She brightened as she spoke the last, looking at Molly in such a way that she knew the girl she was speaking of was unmistakable. 

“Why does being found mean you have to leave, though? You could stay, you don’t have to go, right?” Desperation creeps into her tone, and she can’t find it in her to be embarrassed to discover she’s begging the girl to stay.

Chiyoh’s hand rests on Molly’s cheek, the latter leaning into the touch with a flutter of eyelashes that has Chiyoh smiling in a way that makes her eyes soft and her thumb rub over the girl’s cheek instinctively.

“I am happy being found, and I would love to stay here, but just as before, that sounds lovely, but I cannot stay. I am needed elsewhere, and I must go to my aunt.” No more hidden meanings, she knows Chiyoh is speaking clearly and Molly can follow every word of it without missing a thing.

“Okay.”

She makes sure their eyes meet, drawing the girl’s chin up so she could tell the sincerity she shared was not false. “You are good, Molly. I hope against odds I will see you again.”

Chiyoh leaned in the final few inches and pressed her lips against Molly’s forehead, then tilted her head back and met Molly’s lips with her own. The kiss is soft and kind, bittersweet and wanting, burning with a myriad of things that couldn’t be chronicled in a thousand lifetimes. The girl is left breathless when Chiyoh pulls back, nearly crying out at the loss, and pulling her back in before she realizes what she’s doing. The second kiss is messier than the first, but neither of them regret it. It has fewer emotions, but it bursts with ones no less powerful. 

“I will see you again. Someday. I’ll find you and come to you, Chiyoh.” She said her name like a prayer, falling from her lips like something treasured, something she’s afraid to say for fear of being unworthy. 

“I will be waiting.” Chiyoh kissed her one last time, the shortest one of all, the length of a heartbeat, before pulling back into the mist. She vanished quickly, and Molly had one final vision of her, reaching out as she was surrounded by water vapor and let herself be swallowed up.

Molly returned to the tree hollow one last time, finding a small family of hedgehogs inside which she arranged some branches for, watching them settle in one by one until they were all hidden from view beneath the leaves. The basket was brought with her, returned home to her parents who ask where on earth it’s been (met with no response), and the mark on the tree, scratched in with her knife, had a small addition now. Nothing anyone would notice, but something that made her smile anyway. After that, Molly didn’t go into the woods so much anymore. She didn’t climb trees like she used to, she didn’t explore as far, and the desire to see what’s on the other side had petered away to nothing at all. Molly was content to live with the memories of the strange girl she met in the woods. 

Memories all but forgotten until she stumbled across a tree so like it on her way home from exploring the stream. All but forgotten until she returned to it after Will has disappeared with Hannibal and she was left alone again with Wally. All but forgotten until she heard a familiar accent greeting her from outside the tree, one more time, just like before.

**Author's Note:**

> I will not tell you what time it is, mostly because I refuse to look at the clock. Enjoy!


End file.
